Artificial honeycomb.



G. IVI. MACDONALD.

ARTIFICIAL HONEYCOMB.

Patented May 1, 1917.

I Ino'niar Gear efiimfianald I I, f t? ldr l t li i MAGDQHZLLD, 01 SAN BERNARDIZQ'D, CALIFORNIA.

anrrrrcran nonnrooran.

implication filed June M, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, Gnome M. "MacDon- ALD, a citizen of the United. States, residing at San Bernardino, in the county of San Bernardino and State of California, have invented a new and useful Artificial Honeycomb, of which the following is a specification.

An object of this invention is to provide a simple and practical artificial honey combv adapted to eliminate the use of embossed. foundations. That is to say, where embossed foundations for honey combs are employed, great expense arises whenever the comb becomes infested with foul brood or other diseases, because the diseased portion of the honey comb must be cut away and the wax foundation must be refined by melting the wax and purifying the same, and then forming it into sheets and embossing as bcfore, after which it is necessary for the bees to build up the cells. This cell building requires a large amount of time and wax; and during" the period of cell construction the bees are not only unable to store honey, but become consumers of honey already stored, it being calculated that, from 12 to 22 pounds of honey are consumed by the bees while producing one pound of beeswax.

An ob ect of this invention is to provide a cheap, simple, light, indestructible artificial honey comb that can be readily and thoroughly cleansed and sterilized, and from which the honey can be extracted by centrifugal extracting means with the same iscility as with other honey combs.

This invention is regarded as broadly new and basic in that the honeycomb is constructed of crimped strips of sheet material united together, and each provided with. crimps forming grooves open ended at one edge of the strip and practically closed at the other end of the crimps so that when the strips are secured together side by side with grooves of two adjoining strips registering with each other, there will be formed cells open at the edge of the strips and practically closed at the other end of the cell.

?referably the strip is wide enough to ac- Specification of Letters Iatcnt.

. Patented May 1, 191?.

Serial 2%. leases.

commodate two rows of crimps arranged end to end cross-wise of the strip on opposite sides of its longitudinal medial line, and said strip is provided I with complementary crimps forming half-cells closed at their abutting ends; a number of said strips being "fastened together and thus constituting entire cells.

The strips may be of any suitable sheet material, and I at present contemplate using thin sheet material, such as line tin or sheet tin graded at 6/1000ths of. an inch, more or less, the purpose being to provide as light and thin material as possible with requisite strength; but it is understood that other sheet material may be used to accommodate the facilities and conveniences of the manufacturer.

Further objects, advantages and features of novelty may appear from the accompany ing drawings, the subjoined detail description and the appended claims.

a The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure 1 is an enlarged fragmental perspective view of an artificial honeycomb constructed in accordance with this invention and hung in a hive, afragmentof which is shown.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the honeycomb shown in Fig; 'l.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged edge view of a strip of sheet metal crimped in accordance with this invention preparatory to constructing the artificial comb.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a fragment of the strip.

The crimped strip 1 is provided with two rows of crimps in parallelism forming reversely-arranged complementary grooves '2, 3, normal to the medial line l, 4, of the strip open at the edges 5, 6, of the strip, and partitions formed by intermediate end walls 7, 8 practically closing the grooves at the medial line of the strip and forming semi-cells. Each of said grooves is formed with a central side wall 9 and two lateral side walls 10'; 11 arranged at anglesof about 60, so that when the strips are-placed side toside with each of, the end walls 7 or 8 constitutes a part of the bottom of two semi-cells. The frame of artificial comb thus formed is provided with complete cells open at one end and practically closed by the walls 7 8 at the other.

The strips may be fastened together sideby side by any suitable means, and in the case of a metallic comb they may be metallically fastened by sweating, by soldering, or" by electric-welding. For this purpose there may be employed a spot welding machine, not shown, provided with electrodes to engage the assembled strips and pass the current therethrough to effect the welding in a way readily understood by those skilled in the art.

It is understood that the method of construction is not confined to welding as the strips may be sweated together or united -by means of any well-known process adapted therefor.

When the honeycomb has thus been constructed, lugs 13 will be secured to corners 14 at one side of the comb to stand and rest on the top of the hive box 15.

Before inserting the artificial comb into the hive it will be dipped in the usual way into hot melted beeswax or into any other paraflin base which would be acceptable to the bees, thus coating the metal with a thin coating of beeswax.

In the form of construction shown, the end walls 7, 8 do not quite close the inner or adjoining ends of the cells. The slight openings 16 thus formed when the strips are fastened together will be filled with the wax coating or will be closed by the bees when they get to work.

Whenthe honeycombs have been filled with honey and capped by the bees they may be withdrawn and the caps cut off, and the combs placed in the extractors and the honey extracted in the usual manner. Thereupon if the combs are clean and free from disease they may be immediately returned to the hive for refilling.

In the case of foul brood or other disease. the combs may be quickly sterilized and freed from disease by simply immersing them in a pan of scalding hot water, thus melting off the wax coating and accumulations without destroying the working capacity of the frame formed by the united crimped strips. A

Thereupon the-artificial comb maybe restored by recoating with wax as before and is thus made ready hive.

I claim 1. An artificial strips crimped to form troughs on opposite sides of said strips open at one end and to be returned to the honeycomb consisting of having end walls at the other endformed by bends of the strips, said troughs forming semi-cells, and said strips being fastened together side by side with the end-,

other end by portions of the crimped strips.

3. A honeycomb comprising strips crlmped to form complementary grooves extending in parallelism with each other from oppo-. site sides of the medial line of said strips, .the grooves being open at the edges. of the strips and closed by end walls formed by portions of the strips at the medial line of the strips, the grooves of adjoining strips registering with each other to constitute cells open at the edges of the strips and practically closed at the medial line by said portions of the strips.

4:. An artificial honeycomb. composed of I strips crimped and forming grooves and end walls, the end wall of a groove on one side of the strip forming the end wall of a. groove on the other side of the strip.

5. The artificialhoneycomb composed of crimped strips fastened together to form cells open at opposite edges of the strips, and practically partitioned from each other endwise by intermediate bends in the strips.

6. The artificial honeycomb composed of crimped metal strips metallically fastened together toform cells open at opposite edges of the strips, and practically partitioned from each other endwise by intermediate bends in the strips. 7

7. An artificial honeycomb constructed of crimped strips formed with bends intermediate the edges of the strips to form end and side walls of semi-cells; said strips being fastened together and forming cells closed at one end andadapted to be coated with wax.

8. An artificial honeycomb comprising crimped strips fastened together side by side to form a body, the crimps of the adjoining strips registering with each other to form cells open at one end and practically closed at the other end and'a plate fastened to one edge of the body and projecting therefrom at its ends.

9. An aftificial honeycomb consisting of strips crimped to form troughs on opposite troughs at one edge of the body and project 3.0 sides of said strips; the conformation of the ing therefrom at its ends.

strips being such that the troughs are open In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set at one end and have an end Wall at the other my hand at San Bernardino, California, ench, said trgoughsfformilg semgcells a d this 2d day of June, 1916.

sai strips ein astene to et er si e side to form a %ody with th% semi-cells ir i MAQDGNALD' register with each other to form complete Witness:

cells, and a plate fastened to the sides of the JAMES R. Townsnno. 

